Amelioration of nicotine-induced damage of blood cells in protein malnourished female rats by curcumin

Abstract

Tobacco smoking is continuously increasing the risk of severe diseases like blood cancer, malfunctioning of blood immune system and peroxidative damage of erythrocytes, especially in developing countries. However, the effect of nicotine in the blood cells of protein malnourished condition and its amelioration by curcumin has not yet been studied. The present study is an attempt in that direction where female albino rats maintained under normal/protein restricted diets were subcutaneously injected with nicotine tartrate (2.5 mg kg-1 b.wt. daily for 21 days) and orally supplemented with curcumin (80 mg kg-1 b.wt.) and subsequently in vivo and in vitro experiments were performed. We report that nicotine alters the blood cell composition (RBC counts, haemoglobin content) and aggravates loss of DNA content and DNA damage in blood cells of protein malnourished female rats in comparison to normal diet fed group and curcumin significantly (p<0.001) attenuates nicotine-induced changes in blood cells of protein malnourished rats. In vitro study shows that curcumin strongly interacts with nicotine and also DNA and thereby protects the DNA from nicotine induced damages. This study also confirms that more free nicotine molecules are available in protein restricted condition which aggravates the nicotine induced toxic effect on blood cells. Thus protein malnourished animals are more susceptible to nicotine induced toxicity and curcumin is effective enough to prevent nicotine induced damage even in protein malnourished condition. The molecular mechanism underlying nicotine induced toxicity and prevention by curcumin is discussed in this study. © 2010 Asian Network for Scientific Information.